I came across this forum several weeks ago and decided to build a mame arcade cabinet , so I could re-live the childhood memories once more. I've been thinking about building a slim cabinet with an LCD screen in order to save on space in my living room. Long story short, I looked through several posts and decided to build something similar to Scratch Slim Marvel vs Capcom cabinet by Martinj http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=112721.msg1197905#msg1197905, I think that cabinet looks awesome and it inspired me to build something of my own. I really like how Martijn designed the sharp-edge slim cabinet and I wanted to do something very similar, but use a PC computer with Hyperspin. Martinj, I hope that you don't mind...

So I got a barebone PC kit from TigerDirect.com with a 64GB Solid State hard drive so that my system could boot in under 30 seconds. I installed windows 7 and got Hyperspin working, and a friend of mine gave me all the games I need. I was testing Hyperspin with an X-Arcade Tank Stick which I picked up for only $60 on craigslist, but soon I learned that the best way is to build my own Control Panel. I did not like the key mapping of the tankstick. Some emulators do not like the Alt key, which was mapped to one of the buttons by default. I played around with my own mappings, but the problem with the tankstick is that when you power it off/on, you need to 'load' the custom key mapping with a button on the front of the tankstick, which would be hard to get to if I installed the tankstick in the cabinet. I did a quick search on how to bypass that, but I was not able to find anything, so custom CPO was the only logical thing to do.

I have never done much of woodworking, but long time ago (12 years) I did take some woodworking classes in high school so at least I have some basic idea of how to cut the wood. Another issue was that I do not own any power tools. I went to a local flea market and picked up a used Craftsman router for $60, clamps and some other misc. stuff. I got a circular saw for my b-day last month and I got a $25 jig saw from Home Depot.

My fiance is an engineer so I was able to get some help with the engineering software to draw the cabinet design. Unfortunately she is finishing up school so I actually learned the Pro-E software on my own just enough to come up with the 2D design myself:

I went to Home Depot, used my gift card to buy some wood:3/4" MDF sheet 8x4'. This will be for the sides.3/4" MDF 4x2'. This will be for the CPO and leftover scrap to practice with8x4' 1/2" MDF for all other pieces2x2x8' for making the reinforced joints

Here is what I got done so far, using circular saw, jig saw and a router (I used a 1" long flush trim router bit to clone the 2nd piece, with a help of a jigsaw): You can see below how close I got when cloning both pieces:Final product:

Then I cut out the Control Panel which measures 27.5" x 11 1/8" and taped the template for the button holes, which I found at http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html This site has some great examples for button layouts. I attached the template I used, set to 300 pixels/inch. I drilled some holes to have a good starting point, and then drilled out the holes entirely with a 1 1/8" spade drill bit:I am going to use the buttons and joysticks from the X-Arcade Tankstick, to save money, this way I don't have to worry about selling the tankstick since I no longer need it. Here is a side-by-side comparison for my Control Panel vs tankstick The anti-freeze bottle was used as a weight to hold down the guide when cutting MDF with a jig saw lolAnd here is what the CPO looks like with the sides:I had to make some small cuts in the corners of the side pieces in order to make the CPO fit perfectly.

My fiance is an engineer so I was able to get some help with the engineering software to draw the cabinet design. Unfortunately she is finishing up school so I actually learned the Pro-E software on my own just enough to come up with the 2D design myself:

Ahhh, the wonderful world of Pro/E. You are a brave man taking on Pro/E on your own.

Good luck with your build, ill be watching this. The only big problems i had with the design where

- not enough space below the buttons and the angled front piece of wood, because i had things like volume control and usb connectors, they where in the way.- the thing tipping over during building, epspecially when it was on wheels- speaker panel, its a one piece from the front of the marquee to the middle with perfect centered speaker holes and needed to end behind the lcd

Good luck with your build, ill be watching this. The only big problems i had with the design where

- not enough space below the buttons and the angled front piece of wood, because i had things like volume control and usb connectors, they where in the way.- the thing tipping over during building, epspecially when it was on wheels- speaker panel, its a one piece from the front of the marquee to the middle with perfect centered speaker holes and needed to end behind the lcd

Thanks Martijn. I was also going to install the volume/bass control, headphone jack and USB on the front angled piece of wood. I bought the Klipsch THX 2.1 speakers for pretty cheap on EBay, took it apart and I think I will have just enough space for it underneath the CPO. However, I may be in trouble if I decide to add the trackball later...

On one of the side pieces I went too far and cut the slot on the bottom edge where the side piece is going to meet the floor. But then I was thinking, maybe I should install the T-molding on the bottom of the cabinet also...

What do you guys think? Is it ok to install the T-Molding on the bottom of the cabinet? I was planning on installing retractable wheels so moving the cabinet is not going to create any issues. Martinj, did you install T-molding on the bottom of your cabinet? I can't tell from the pictures in your post...

I also spent some time learning the Photoshop in the last few days, I bought a book and went through a few tutorials. I was searching online for some good templates to use for the graphics, but I found nothing of interest, so I decided to modify some images I found already. This is what I'm gonna go with most likely:

Make the CPO the marquee, just drop a MvsCapcom logo down in one corner, lose the current marquee, make a CP with art designed with a consideration to your button layout. Side art isn't bad, are you planning on using it square or blowing it up as a wrap?

Make the CPO the marquee, just drop a MvsCapcom logo down in one corner, lose the current marquee, make a CP with art designed with a consideration to your button layout. Side art isn't bad, are you planning on using it square or blowing it up as a wrap?

Thanks for your suggestions, I will redo the marquee and I will polish up the CPO. Here is the side layout:

I haven't made much progress with the cabinet because we have had some crazy hot weather in Chicago lately... 90-102 degrees all week long, impossible to work in the garage. I only got to prime the MDF and sand it down with a 220 sand paper. I did some research about painting and I'm glad I did because the MDF should never be painted with water-based paint! Oil-based only. Water would damage/misshape the MDF board. I used the following oil-based primer:

marquee still needs some work. the logo has to be bigger and consider using a different name than "marvel vs capcom". place the large logo in the middle first THEN characters surrounding the logo. dormammu in the middle looks great. where are you getting these alt mvc3 pictures again? (yes I can google...)

I spent some time with Photoshop lately. What do you guys think about the new design for Marquee and CP?

Personally, I think you should flip the CP image so that the Capcom side is on the left, and the marvel side on the right so that they match the art on the side panels. (or flip the side panel art). Actually I think flipping the side art would work better. Marvel on the left, Capcom on the right. To visually line up with the title, Marvel Vs. Capcom.

I also agree with snaake, and think the logo needs to be much bigger on the marquee.

But for the CP, I'd echo Le Chuck's advice and design it with button configurations in place. IMHO, using full-on artwork for CPs doesn't look very good 90% of the time, because buttons and joysticks end up obscuring things a lot. It's a cool piece of art, but Ryu would look kinda silly with a joystick coming out of his eye and Wolvie's face would be covered in buttons.

But for the CP, I'd echo Le Chuck's advice and design it with button configurations in place. IMHO, using full-on artwork for CPs doesn't look very good 90% of the time, because buttons and joysticks end up obscuring things a lot. It's a cool piece of art, but Ryu would look kinda silly with a joystick coming out of his eye and Wolvie's face would be covered in buttons.

But for the CP, I'd echo Le Chuck's advice and design it with button configurations in place. IMHO, using full-on artwork for CPs doesn't look very good 90% of the time, because buttons and joysticks end up obscuring things a lot. It's a cool piece of art, but Ryu would look kinda silly with a joystick coming out of his eye and Wolvie's face would be covered in buttons.

I agree with this advice. Look at any actual arcade control panel. If there's a medley/mash up of characters, I've never seen one in real life.

I will take Le Chuck's advise and design the CP around the button configuration. Small problem is that I already cut out the holes in the CP, and I think it would be easier to design the graphics first, then build the CP. Oh well, I welcome challenges! It will help me learn more Photoshop skills. To proceed with the CP, I quickly drafted the CP layout on paper, measurements in mm (These are actual measurements taken after the CP was made)I will post the CP graphic once it's finished.

I got the paint at a local home depot:It even provides rust protection... It looks really good with just 1 coat, and would be perfect with 2 or 3, but since I am applying the graphics anyways, it's good enough. I may do 3 coats on the parts that are exposed.

I re-sized the CP graphic so that the buttons do not obstruct much of the art. Next thing is to come up with some design around the buttons and joysticks, but anything I tried so far looked bad. I will try a little more later, unless this looks good enough (Disregard the blue joystick surrounding, it is the plastic cover) ?

Love the artwork. You got some skills!At the end of the day you'll be the one looking at the art all day, so make sure you approve of it all. everyone on thisForum is pretty helpful but we all have different tastes. Keep up the great work!

I think the lower placement of the characters work a lot nicer, I see you flipped the image too. I think it works.As for the art around the buttons, maybe go the Knieval style and have the area around the buttons area a darker section of the art.

Thanks for the help guys. I will try a few more versions of the CP before I decide to send it in for printing. I had much less time this weekend so I only came up with the fold-able wheel system:

I wanted to have an easy way to move the cabinet whenever I want to, but I did not want the wheels to show from the outside. This way all I have to do is lift the cabinet's side and lower the wheel system.

I re-sized the CP graphic so that the buttons do not obstruct much of the art. Next thing is to come up with some design around the buttons and joysticks, but anything I tried so far looked bad. I will try a little more later, unless this looks good enough (Disregard the blue joystick surrounding, it is the plastic cover) ?

TBH, I don't think the art would work as is for a CP. It's a very colourful piece of art with a lot going on and once you add buttons and joysticks on top, it's going to be a very busy looking control panel.

I'd recommend darkening and desaturating the entire the entire piece. Or maybe running gradients from the edges to emphasize Wolvie/Ryu and take away some of the "busy-ness" of the overall look.

As an example, I played around with the pic a little bit and came up with these:

For comparison w/ original:

I don't know what colour buttons you were planning (although black and/or white is your safest bet). Probably could work a little better with borders around the button/stick areas, like warjunkie mentioned. Although you'd likely need to reposition the art again.

I like the CP art, but it's definitely an issue of taste and the reaction you get depends on the type of person you ask. A lot of BYOAC members would probably think it looks too "busy", but if you posted it over at SRK, you'd probably get far more compliments than criticism.

I re-sized the CP graphic so that the buttons do not obstruct much of the art. Next thing is to come up with some design around the buttons and joysticks, but anything I tried so far looked bad. I will try a little more later, unless this looks good enough (Disregard the blue joystick surrounding, it is the plastic cover) ?

TBH, I don't think the art would work as is for a CP. It's a very colourful piece of art with a lot going on and once you add buttons and joysticks on top, it's going to be a very busy looking control panel.

I'd recommend darkening and desaturating the entire the entire piece. Or maybe running gradients from the edges to emphasize Wolvie/Ryu and take away some of the "busy-ness" of the overall look.

As an example, I played around with the pic a little bit and came up with these:

For comparison w/ original:

I don't know what colour buttons you were planning (although black and/or white is your safest bet). Probably could work a little better with borders around the button/stick areas, like warjunkie mentioned. Although you'd likely need to reposition the art again.

I like your recommendation shponglefan, I will play around with the brightness and making the image focus more on the Woverine and Ryu. I took the buttons out of the tankstick, so I will be using white buttons for the top row (from left to right: P1 credit, P1 start, P2 start, P2 credit) and the rest will be black. Thanks for taking the time to modify the image!

I decided to take a break from the graphics and concentrated more on the cabinet. I also got some configuration done in the Hyperspin. I removed some of the systems that I would never play, like the old Atari and other super old systems, and kept the most interesting to me systems (Capcom System 1 and 2, Neo Geo, Sega, Nintendo, and more). I also did some work on the cabinet:

I had to re-do the panel right above the door a couple of times, as I made some cutting mistakes. And I did have to redo the hinges for the door, the pine wood cracked while assembling. I also need to make the front pieces fit better together...I will work on that tomorrow. Then I will work on the Marquee and the back of the cabinet...

I took a short vacation earlier in the week, so unfortunately I did not do much with the cabinet this week. I only installed the rear panel, made out of 1/2 MDF (For reducing weight). I decided to go with 2 pieces, so that I don't need to remove the whole thing in case I need access to the bottom side of the cabinet.

It's been a while since I posted my progress, but I had alot going on. I gotta kick into high gear because I will be moving soon, and need the cabinet done before I move.

I used a router to make a hole for the fan:

I bought some cheap gutter screen at Ace Hardware for $4 and spray painted it black. I will use it as protective screen.

And here is what it looks like when used as a speaker grill (I will cover it with a speaker cloth later):

And protective screen for the exhaust fans:

I put everything together to make sure it all fits before I start painting. I'm real happy with how everything fits together nicely. The cabinet door opens smooth. I will install the lock later and use it as a handle to open the door.